


righteous fury

by flyingfingertips



Category: The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: Anger, Angst, F/M, drunk people, idk what ever to tag things, there's yelling, ummm - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 17:24:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15689967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingfingertips/pseuds/flyingfingertips
Summary: Alex is angry at Strand for oh so many reasons and decides that the best course of action is to drink. This plan works perfectly... until the reason for her anger won't stop calling her. (Set after episode 208 where Simon Reese escapes and the infamous "She. My friend is a she" "...Okay" thing happened)





	righteous fury

**Author's Note:**

> I don't drink, so I apologize in advance for anything super duper wrong with how I portrayed anything. I'm sure there's going to be something, but oh well. Oh, and like all of my fics (because I live for that instant gratification) this is unbeta'd. If you see something, feel free to let me know!

     Alex Reagan slammed the door shut behind her before marching directly to her liquor cabinet. She angrily downed a shot before thinking about how her ‘anger drinking’ usually lasted for a while and if she were to take shots the whole time, there’s a good chance she could end up in the hospital. With an angry sigh, everything was angry at the moment, she pulled open her fridge and grabbed a beer. 

     “What is his problem,” she muttered to herself as she popped the cap off her drink. “How can one person lack that much human decency?”  Alex took a large drink of her beer, feeling the alcohol already starting to course through her veins. She took another drink. And another. Pretty soon, she was sitting on the couch, sipping her third beer. 

     Alex Reagan is a lot of things, and a lightweight drunk is one of them. She’s not as bad as some of her friends, but it doesn’t take too much to get her tipsy. Bringing the no-longer-cold bottle up to her lips, she felt sorry for herself. She was going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow. “Fuck him,” she said suddenly. She felt a little strange talking to herself in an empty apartment, but the relief that those words brought far outweighed anything. “Fuck. Him,” she repeated, her voice growing louder for emphasis. “Fuck him and his stupid ‘know-it-all’ attitude and his pessimism and his ‘apophenia’ and his ‘no Alex, you’re just being stupid. There’s a logical explanation for every single  _ fucking _ thing you might bring up. Duh.’” Alex tried her best mockery of Dr. Richard Strand’s voice for the last bit, but it ended up sounding more like she had a chest cold. “Why can’t he just be cooperative for once? Just once! That’s all I’m asking. He’s just so….. Ergh!” She slammed her beer down on the coffee table in annoyance. “And he will never even apologise. He won’t even talk to me like I’m a human being. I’m just a  _ vessel  _ for his message of skepticism. Oh! And he always-” Alex’s personal tirade was cut off by a familiar beeping noise. Someone was calling her. Clumsily, she reached behind her for phone and stared blearily at the screen. 

**CALLER ID:** Doctor Strand

     “Speak of the devil,” Alex said. “Or don’t, if you’re a paranormal skeptic who hates when people have fun and enjoy things.” With a sneer, Alex declined the call and tossed her phone down to the other side of the couch. A few moments later, it lit up again. Groaning, she picked it up. It was Strand again. Considering how unusual it is from him to call once, let alone twice in as many minutes, Alex felt herself growing worried. She accepted the call, placed it on speakerphone, and flopped back on the couch, beer in hand. 

     “Alex?” Came the voice from the other end. 

     “Hmm,” Alex hummed in a semblance of answer and took another sip of beer.

     “How strange,” Strand said, mostly to himself. “My other call didn’t go through.”

     “Yes it did.”

     “You declined it,” Strand stated, his voice unreadable.

     “Wow, you really are a genius. What are your doctorates in? Obvious observations?” Alex’s words slurred together slightly as she sank deeper into the couch.

     “Are… are you drunk?” Strand asked. For the first time, Alex thought she could hear emotion in his voice. She couldn’t tell which one, but her money was on either ‘disgust’ or ‘disappointment’.

     “Yes. I am. Why are you calling?” Her words were crisp, obviously meant to shut down any kind of conversation.

     There was a slight pause before Strand answered, “I was worried. Nic told me that Simon Reese had escaped, so I called the studio. You weren’t there. The intern told me you left in a hurry and I was… concerned.”

     Strand’s words surprised Alex. There was no way she could have predicted that that was the reason Strand called. Well, she corrected herself, she could have predicted it easily if she held more stock in Strand’s character. However, she wasn’t going to let him off that easy. Not after all that he’s done to her. “I’m quite fine, as you can tell. I’m surprised you even found time to call. Aren’t you supposed to be with your friend right now? Your  _ female _ friend?” 

     “Alex.” Strand’s sudden rough tone echoed through the phone. “You’re better than this.”

     “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

     “Yes. You do.” 

     “Oh, I’m sure I don’t,” Alex said, popping her ‘t’ for emphasis. “Where is she, anyways? I doubt she’s just sitting there, listening to you.”

     There was another pause before Strand spoke, like he was choosing what to say next very carefully. “She’s asleep.”

     “Oh,” was all that Alex managed to get out. Sudden and unwelcome flashes of some anonymous woman asleep next to Strand played out behind Alex’s eyes. She watched as Strand absent mindedly stroked the woman’s hair the way that he would sometimes do to her while she was sleeping. Whenever she’d wake up, he’d pull his hand back like it was on fire, and he always looked as if he couldn’t quite believe that he did that. Alex assumed it was just a reflex from years of being around Coralee and Charlie, but she never complained.

     “It’s not like that.” Strand’s harsh voice brought her back to reality and she shuddered at the thoughts she was just having. 

     “If you say so,  _ Doctor  _ Strand,” She knew that the increased formality was just a bad idea at this point, but she couldn’t help herself.

     “We both know why you’re acting like this,” Strand said, dangerously low. “You’re just too scared to admit it, though I don’t know why. Just say it, Alex. Why are you doing this?”

     “Because I’m angry!” Alex shouted. She had reached her boiling point and there was no going back. “I’m. So. Fucking. Angry.” There was silence on the other end of the line and Alex let out a bitter laugh. “What? Did you think it was because I was  _ jealous? _ Do you really think that jealousy is the kind of emotion I have? You can’t  _ do  _ anything with jealousy. But anger? Oh, with anger you can do quite a lot.”

     Strand didn’t say anything, but Alex knew he was still there. “And you know what, Richard? I’m not angry at her. I don’t give a shit about her! I’m angry at  _ you. _ ”

     “Me?” 

     “Yes, you. Simon Reese has escaped and I am honestly afraid I might die, and where are you? You’re off doing god knows what with god knows who. I’m not saying you can’t have a life, Richard. For fucks sake, I want you to have a life! Maybe it’ll make you stop being such a depressing sack of shit. I’m saying-” Alex stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. “I’m saying that in this terrifying time, you weren’t there. You’re always. Not. There. I don’t get how you can seem to be everywhere except for the place that I need you. And the best part? You don’t even notice. You don’t even care. I don’t know if you’ve ever even said that you’re sorry for rescheduling an interview or missing a meeting.”

     “I  _ am _ sor-” 

     “You want to know the worst part of all?” Alex cut Strand off quickly. She wasn’t going to let his half assed attempt at an apology interrupt her.

     It was silent for a moment before a soft, “Yes”, floated through the room.

     “I can’t sleep. When I do sleep, it’s filled with nightmares. So many nightmares. I have dreams about shadows and demons and monsters. But on the worst nights, the ones that I feel sick if I ever think about, do you know what I dream about? You.” The confession lay heavy on the air for a moment before Alex continued. “My  _ worst  _ nightmares are ones where you tell me that I went too far. That this is over, for good this time. I see you walk away and you never come back. You leave me. Time and time again, night after night, you leave me.”

     “Alex,” Strand said gently. There was no need to continue talking. The one word said all that needed to be said.

     “Even worse than those are the ones where y-” An angry sob caught in the back of Alex’s throat. “Even worse than those are the ones where you stand in front of me, eyes glittering, and you tell me that… that you love me. You stand there and you tell me that you have never felt this way about anyone before and to hell with ‘journalistic integrity’, whatever that even means anymore. But then you smile. It’s always a sad smile. You tell me that you love me and then you tell me that you’re leaving, because even though you love me, you have Coralee back and Charlie is speaking to you again and you have a family to be with. You have a happy life. Without me.” The anger in Alex’s voice seemed to drain as she talked. Towards the end, she sounded as scared and tired as she felt. 

     “Alex,” Strand said again, “I will never leave you. You have my word. As long as my heart will beat, I will be by your side.” 

     “Richard,” Alex started. She found that screaming at a phone takes much more energy out than she would have thought and her eyelids started to get heavy. “Richard, I-” Her voice fell off, leaving behind it a deep breathing.

Strand let out what seemed to be halfway between a laugh and a sigh. “Goodnight, Alex. You’re going to have one hell of a hangover tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Glad you made it this far. Hope you liked! If you leave a comment, I will owe you a life debt. If you leave kudos, I will you owe you my first born child* (*This means that only one person can leave kudos. If more than one person leaves kudos, the deal is off. I can only have one first born child). Have a great day!


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